The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-06-29
Farm and Garden Notes.

manure and wood ashes, worked thorough
ly into the soil, is the best agency for re-
viving old fruit trees.
Beans, on poor ground, rarely pay
upon clean, rich soil, they are profitable
Sow in drills thirty inches apart, drop
ping four beans every foot.
Allow enough new raspberry roots
that come up from the base to grow to
produce canes for next years fruit. Train
up these and cut away all others.
Lay straw, marsh hay or other mulch
along the strawberry rows, to keep the
fruit clean. If berries are to be marketed
have baskets, crates, ETC., all ready.
Swedish turnips may be sown on rich,
we'll fined soil; sow in drills, thirty
inches apart, two pounds of seed to the
acre. Later thin to two inches IN the
rows.
Use no stable manure on your peach
trees. A mixture of some kind of min
eral fertilizers is better. Experiments
have shown mari to be excellent for peach
trees.
The true mode of cultivation is by a
judicious system of rotation. The soil
may fail to produce certain crops and yet
be rich and we'll adapted to some other
kind.
The best way for getting rid of vii
lows, is to cut the bark, about three feet
high, and peel it to the ground. Do it
about the time of the full moon, in
June.
Gooseberries are not grown extensively
for sale, but every farm and garden
should have some space devoted to them.
When well trimmed they make very rank
growth.
Oats on poor land are greatly benefited
by top dressing. Even after the plant
has bloomed, it is best to apply nitrate of
soda, though it is better to put it on
earlier.
There are over fifty poultry associations
in the United States that annually give
exhibitions. They have been instru-
mental in greatly advancing the poultry
interests.
Chickens will eat wheat when they are
two weeks old, and they should be given
plenty of it. When rapidly fattening,
they should be given daily small por-
tion of meal.
In pruning trees it is better to have
one strong branch or limb than two or
three weak ones. Some think very
good time to prune trees is right after
they have leaved out.
The soil should be so thoroughly
that the fine rootlets can pene-
trate it. Ground put in this condition
will produce much larger crop than
where the soil is left full of Jumps.
The artichoke crop does well the first
year, but satisfactory return is seldom
had for eight or ten years afterward.
Thus, after the first crop of artichokes,
the succeeding ones become nuisance.
In estimating the worth of fertilizer,
values are set only upon the
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash;
sometimes the lime is considered. The
wheat crop ordinarily removes forty-fve
pounds of nitrogen per acre annually.
1t is a great mistake to draw soil
around the stems of plants with view of
forcing roots from parts where nature
never intended there should be any.
Even when transplanted, the stems of no
kind of plants should be set deeper in
the soil than they originally grew.
Gardening for pleasure, health, and
knowledge of the vegetable world are the
highest inducements that can be set be-
fore one to lead to the study and practice
of horticulture. On farms more or less
garden work should be engaged in every
day, and by every member of the family,
whenever it is possible.
More castor beans are grown in South
ern Illinois than in any other of the
States. The acreage reaches 10000, and
large factories are maintained for ex-
tracing the oil. In California, also, the
bean is extensively cultivated and does
we'll. A soil that will answer for wheat
or corn will suffice for the castor bean.
Tomatoes raised in light, rather poor
soil in a sheltered or warm situation, are
always sweet in favorable seasons, while
those raised in richs soil or in partial shade
are always sour A rank growth of foliage
shades the fruit densely, and interferes
with the development of the saccharine
principle. Again, tomatoes raised in
poorish, light soil ripen ten days earlier
than those raised in rich soil.
For green manuring red clover, rye and
are especially recommended.
Most soils will improve best under con-
tinued treatment of green manuring and
Another says, however, when
fertilizers are at hand, either as barnyard
and compost, or commercial fer
tilizers, it becomes question in many
instances whether it is profitable to ex-
pend green crops for enriching the
ground, or time in restoring it, with naked
fallows.
There are many advantages in divers
ified crops. 1t is better for the land not
to continue one kind of crop on it for an
indefinite time. 1t is easier handling
hundred acres in different crops than if
all is in one kind. A few acres in one
crop will demand attention at one time,
and is soon taken care of, and then an
other one is ready. When a farmer is
growing different crops he runs less risk,
for if one is not successful others may be.
For the foregoing and other reasons, we
would urge our readers not to plant the
whole farm, or as much of it as possible,
to corn. What is planted get in as nicely
as possible, and plant the rest of the land
to some other crop
Feather eating, says the E. ". Farmer,
is caused by idleness and lack of suit
able food. Strew the poultry house